When the Light Goes Out
by luvsallthingsslash
Summary: What if Anakin was found by Darth Maul first? Please review. If you don't, you will not have any say at all in its making.
1. Chapter 1

**When the Light Goes Out**

_**Okay, this is my second story, and it will probably be finished before my Harry Potter story, as this is just a story, and I want my Harry Potter to have 200,000 words and at least a hundred chapters,**_

_**I do have a poll on my page; no one is required to vote, but if you vote none of the above, send me a private message of the kind you do want. If you don't, I will not count it. Sorry.**_

_**I do not own anything Star Wars, but I might someday.**_

_**If you're reading this, please review. If I get no reviews, I'm deleting it off the entire web, and I will never think about it again.**_

_**This story has adult-oriented themes. I will tolerate (even enjoy) flames, as long as they have nothing to with the themes.**_

_**There most likely will not be any slash in this story, but some of my other stories will have slash, as you might have guessed by my penname. **_

"Boy!" Watto yelled angrily, because his slave had been, for the third time today, taking apart items Watto intended to sell. "You are making me lose money by doing that; if I catch one more time, I will sell you to an off-worlder and not tell them about your explosive implant."

Watto was a Toydarian, immune to mind tricks, and very small, with bat-like wings on his back. He also had a case of great stupidity. The boy in question, Anakin Skywalker, was short and skinny for a ten year old. He had brown hair and green eyes.

Anakin Skywalker's eyes were burning with barely managed fury and contempt. "I doubt that, because is the only planet that allows slavery, and the explosive implant thing is famous across the galaxy."

Watto was taken aback. '_The insolent brat thinks he can get away with backtalking me…_'

That's when a Zabrak entered his shop.

Watto knew very little, but he definitely knew that the home planet of the Zabraks had no laws against slavery.

"Sir, I have a question for you. Would you happen to desire to buy a slave? I'm willing to sell him cheap…" Watto said in what he assumed was an enticing voice.

"You will sell him for nothing, one way or the other," the Zabrak said.

"What do you mean by that?" Watto asked, "Is that a threat?"

"Yes, and no. A Jedi is, even now, heading toward this shop. He's coming to buy parts for his spaceship.

"You are to refuse to service him," the Zabrak said.

"What makes you think that I will?" Watto cried out belligerently.

The Zabrak held out his hand, and lightning came forth and struck Watto in the chest. "Do not tell him about my presence here, Watto, or you will suffer a death far more painful than what I just demonstrated to you."

The Zabrak went to the back of the shop, and Watto was practically sweating bullets. He did suffer from massive stupidity, but he, like all beings, knew a death threat when he heard one.

Then two or three people entered the shop. Anakin couldn't tell which because he was in the back with the Zabrak. The Zabrak had said, "For protective means." Anakin figured that meant that Watto was going to lose his favorite slave if he revealed the Zabrak's location to the Jedi.

"We would like to purchase new hyperspace parts for our ship," someone, a male; humanoid, definitely, said.

"Yes, I believe that we have the parts here, unless my slave vandalized them like everything else of worth here.

Yes, we do; they're in perfect condition, too! That will be five hundred credits… No, sorry, we don't take Republic credits here."

"You will accept these Republic credits," the man's voice said, slowly, as if making a threat to Watto.

"We _don't_ take Republic credits here," Watto said again.

The unseen man said again, "You will take Republic credits."

"Are you trying to use a Jedi mind trick on me? Toydarians are immune to them."

Both Watto and the man laughed, as if sharing a private joke, and then there was a peculiar sound. _Snap-hiss_

The man's voice said, "You will give us the parts we need, my dear Toydarian friend. Whether or not you will get paid is up to you."

Watto said, rather hurriedly, "There's another shop, two kilometers away from here, with better, newer parts, and much lower prices!"

The humming sound died away with another _snap-hiss_.

After five minutes had passed, Watto came to the back with his "customer" and his slave. Sweat was streaming out of his every bodily pore.

"Okay, Master Whoever-You-Are, they're gone."

"Maul; refer to me as Maul," Maul said.

"Now what do you want?" the Toydarian said resignedly.

"You will deactivate the explosive implant located in this boy's neck, or I will remove it, force you to swallow it, and then put you onboard the next flight off of here."

Watto gulped, then rushed over to his counter and pulled a strange device. He walked over and handed it the Zabrak and said, "Do it if you can."

Maul said, "You will do it, and you will stand closer to him than I am."

Watto gulped again, then flew back over to the counter, got another device, flew back, then, hovering in the air barely a foot from Anakin, he pressed a series of buttons. "Done," he said in fear.

Maul yanked the device out of Watto's hands. "Okay, then, it can't reactivate the explosive. It's your lucky day, Watto; I won't be killing you," he said as he handed Watto the device back, along with a hundred Tatooine credits.

Watto was once again taken aback.

Together, Anakin and the Zabrak walked out the front door of Watto's shop, with Watto practically in tears. '_He just gave me a fortune for gambling_,' Watto thought.


	2. Return of the Sith

**When the Light Goes Out**

_**Okay, I want to thank g1rldraco7 and NN (anonymous) for reviewing this story. If it wasn't for them, this story would have been abandoned and erased off the Internet. If you're reading this, please review; it means so much to me…**_

Anakin went with Maul to a black spaceship located just outside of town. It was unlike any had seen before, and he honestly wanted to see more like it. "Where did you get this, sir?" Anakin asked curiously.

"I made it," Maul replied gruffly.

"Wow," Anakin said, "Will I ever get to make my own spaceship?"

"When you grow up a little bit," Maul said, "Now, we have to get off this sandy rock before the Jedi tracks us to it."

"You mean the Jedi knows you're here?" Anakin asked, almost excitedly."

"Not yet, but he will before too long; he will sense you and me through the Force if he ever gets his head out of his ass," Maul replied, "So we ought to leave, understand?"

"I suppose- what title should I call you by? Master doesn't quite seem to fit, and I doubt you want me to refer to you as Maul," Anakin asked.

"Refer to me directly as Darth Maul. Refer to me when speaking to others as Lord Maul."

"Yes, Darth Maul."

They boarded the ship, and when it took off, Anakin thought sadly of his mother, but the spirit of adventure overtook him, and he thought not of what he was leaving behind, not his destination, but the adventure that lie in between. "Darth Maul, why did you free me?" Anakin asked, as soon as the thought popped into his head.

"Make no mistake, boy. You are no longer a slave, yes, but you are not yet free," Darth Maul said ominously.

'_What does he mean by that?_' Anakin thought. '_I bet he will tell me soon. I'll just wait for him to tell me. It's not like I've any other choice in the matter._'

The ship jumped into hyperspace, and Anakin, taken by surprise, fell out of his seat. Maul came out of the cockpit, saw Anakin, and laughed deeply for a moment.

"Now, I'm going to begin training you in the dark side of the Force, Anakin," he said, "First, the dark side is a non-profit organization. If you want to make credits, you have to do it on the side.

"Second, while the light side has higher numbers, most of them are healers, Padawans, or younglings. They hardly ever take a break. Sith, on the other hand, can take breaks, and are more powerful. That's the beauty of being evil.

"Third, Darth Sidious is not to be criticized, unless it's rather obvious that he's wrong. He will try things like this on you in your early apprenticeship.

"Fourth, the dark side is the path that leads to as close as you can get to being free, other than being a Hutt on an Outer Rim planet.

"Do you understand me, boy?" Maul asked.

"Yes, sir, I understand you quite well, actually. Far more than most people I know. I have just one question. What is a non-profit organization?" Anakin asked.

"It is an organization where you don't make any credits."

"Oh," Anakin said, "I probably should've guessed that."

"You probably should have," Maul agreed.

They flew in silence for about five more minutes, and then Anakin asked, "Where are we going?"

"Oh, that… We're going to Coruscant, where the Jedi are based." Maul said.

This statement utterly and absolutely confused the poor Sith-to-be, our hero, Anakin Skywalker. "Why in the name of the Force are we going there, Darth Maul?"

"That's where the Sith are based as well," Maul replied, "See, the Jedi are in a permanent state of having their heads shoved up their asses. They believe in the destruction of the Sith millennia ago, and refuse to believe that there can be any threat at all to them, especially on their own home planet. So, the Sith have based themselves on Coruscant, since the Rule of Two, which Darth Sidious' own master broke, by having me train to be a Sith. Oh, yes, he is still alive; I've not felt his death in the Force.

"Now, we have been recruiting from the Jedi as well as from planets like yours; sometimes, we don't feel like training someone to actually use the Force."

They sat in silence for an hour or two, and then Maul got up, and walked into the cockpit. A minute later, the spaceship came out of hyperspace, and they flew down towards the surface of Coruscant. Most of the landing pads for air/spaceships were up on the higher levels, but Maul bypassed them all.

Once they got so low that Anakin was sure that they should've crashed into the physical surface of the planet, Maul eased the ship into a hidden hanger. "This is where we meet Sidious; he's a public figure, so he has to come down here in disguise."

There were two cloaked men standing in the hanger. One was easily identifiable as human, and the other was definitely humanoid. The human spoke up. "Maul, did you accomplish what you set out to do?"

"Yes, master. The Jedi is trapped on Tatooine, and will remain there until he gets his head out of his ass, and steals a ship. He most likely won't, so we will, in all probability, succeed in using the Naboo invasion to start a galactic civil war," Maul said cautiously, "and I have found a boy; sense for yourself how powerful in the Force he is."

The humanoid pulled off his hood, revealing that he was a Muunilist. "Yes, I sense great potential. I sense hate, and anger, but I also sense a fear of that anger. Boy, in order to be a Sith, you must embrace your emotions. That is the path that lies to freedom."

'_It leads to narcissism as well,_' Anakin thought, but all he said was, "Yes, sir."

"I am Darth Plagueis," said the Muunilist, "and this is Darth Sidious, Sith Lord. He was my apprentice, until I encouraged him to take on an apprentice of his own."

"You will address me as Lord Sidious," Sidious said, never taking off his hood, "Lord Plagueis, do I have permission to give him a Sith name?"

"No, he will be my apprentice," Plagueis said to Sidious, and then turning to Anakin, he said, "I now dub you Darth… Vader."


	3. first step

**When the Light Goes Out**

_**I apologize for not updating sooner. Thanks to everyone who liked/ followed/ commented on my stories. You people are the reason I live!**_

Anakin Skywalker, now named the Sith Lord Darth Vader, blinked in surprise. "Is that it?" He asked dubiously. This caused the elder Sith to laugh. "What? I thought there might be like a test, or something, probably on the correct usage of who and whom!" Anakin said vehemently.

"Lord Vader, there is much more before you are truly a Sith," Plagueis said, "and many years will pass before you become one of us. But now is not the time for such thoughts; Sidious is expected be somewhere. Isn't that right, Lord Sidious?"

Darth Sidious turned and walked away silently, and Plagueis turned to Anakin. "The first step toward becoming a Sith is that you must learn to control your emotions. The dark side of the Force draws on fear, anger, hatred, and tension in general. All of these emotions have the power to make people do stupid things. You are to embrace those emotions, but not to let them control you. Once you can do that, then we will proceed to teaching you how to wield the Force."

Suddenly, a peculiar, yet familiar _snap-hiss_ sound came from behind Anakin. He leapt aside, just as Maul swung his lightsaber through the air exactly where Anakin's head had been.

"This is quite interesting, Lord Vader. Never before have I seen such a quick response to an unexpected lightsaber strike. The Force is rooted inside you; it pulses, and it flares, and you seem to have an innate ability to _feel_ it. This is quite odd, and it will aid in your training," Plagueis said thoughtfully, "but that was supposed to be a demonstration of how your emotions are supposed to lend strength to you, but also how they try to command you. This first step is the most crucial step, the one most Sith never master, and generally destroys the wielder in the end. It is _far_ easier said than done. I expect that as a human slave, you have been in such _dangerous_ situations before, yes?"

"Yes, Lord Plagueis, I have. I have been in situations where my emotions have saved my life, then nearly caused me to lose it. Podraces, generally." Anakin- who was now starting to think of himself as Darth Vader- said cautiously.

"Good, then, apprentice. You were born in a favorable position for becoming a Sith, then. You were born into slavery, feeling anger and hatred at your 'masters,' and in placed into situations that taught you how to use your emotions without being destroyed by those same emotions. If left to your own devices, I have no doubt that you would have become a Sith in all but name." Darth Plagueis said gleefully.

Anakin now _sensed_ pain in his back, and he fell to the ground. Maul's lightsaber was thrust through the space where Anakin's heart had been. Anakin's momentum brought him back up to his feet, whipping his fist into Maul's stomach. Maul fell back, gasping, and dropped his double-bladed lightsaber. "Please stop that, Lord Maul. It has become _such_ an annoyance," Anakin understated politely.

The Muunilinst Sith laughed. "Yes, Maul, you have made your point.

"Lord Vader, you are a Sith apprentice now. The only ways out are mastering the dark side, and death. There is no turning back whatsoever. Is that understood, apprentice?"

"I understand, my Lord." Vader stated. Instinct caused him to kneel to Plagueis. "I pledge my life, and my health, to the dark side of the Force. I swear allegiance to you, Darth Plageius, for as long as doing so is not detrimental to me, and I swear allegiance to the Sith cause until the end of my days."

"That is an _original_ vow, Vader, but you will be held to it. And as long as you stay loyal to the first and last parts of your pledge, your allegiance to me will not detriment you in any way," Plagueis responded.

**3 hours later**

Vader was meditating at Plageuis' command. He knew that the other Sith were talking about him, but the rage one would have expected him to feel was not there. He concentrated on his breathing, and suddenly he _felt_ something move behind him. He concentrated on the stealthy motion behind him, and he _knew_ that it was Darth Maul. Vader stood up, and turned around to face Maul. "Lord Maul, why did you come here?" Vader asked.

Maul, startled, responded, "Lord Plagueis requests your presence."


	4. Really Short Chapter

When The Light Goes Out

_**Thanks all of you faithful followers... I apologize for the long wait as deeply as I possibly can. I won't promise regular updates, but definitely more often updates. This applies to my other stories as well...**_

_**I would like to thank anyone who reads and comments on this chapter...**_

Darth Vader, who had now fully integrated the title, was seething with curiosity, but made sure that it was not visible- neither in his face nor in his aura. He followed Darth Maul down the well lit corridor, to a commodious room. There was very little furniture, and Lord Plagueis and Lord Sidious were sitting on the floor. Plagueis looked up when Vader and Maul entered. "Welcome to the Sith Command Base. This is where the Sith confer and make plans. We were just contemplating whether we should reveal Lord Sidious's public persona to you. Unfortunately, Sidious does not trust you enough for that."

"I thought as much," Vader responded, "and I don't think that he will appreciate the lack of trust when he becomes heavily reliant on me. After all, he is aging- considerably faster than he should.

"Oh, you didn't think I noticed that, did you?" Vader laughed without any humor.

Sidious was shocked, but also burning with rage.

"Yes, every time you wield the dark side of the force, it bites you back. You are afraid of the Force..." Vader laughed again.

Plagueis had a thoughtful expression on his face. "How could you sense such a thing?" he asked.

"The same way I sensed that you are afraid of death and the betrayal of your two apprentices," Vader replied, " It radiates off you through the Force. I wonder how the Jedi do not sense it. After all, The famed Master Yoda is definitely far more powerful than me."

"Oh no, my young apprentice. I sensed your Force power all the way from here... And yet Yoda's presence in the Force becomes obscure the moment I leave the gravity field of Coruscant. Long have I studied the midi-chlorians, and through my studies, I have come to the conclusion that you are the very child of the Force referred to in the great Prophecy made by the Ancestors of the Sith. You will bring balance to the Force by weakening the light side and strengthening the dark side. This is your destiny... It would come to be whether you started as a Sith or as a Jedi," Plagueis said.

Vader scoffed. "Some old man centuries ago foretold my entire life? That's a lie, made by a different old man trying to control my life. Is there going to be any worthwhile lessons taught to me, or will I be required to learn them by force?"

This irked Sidious, but only caused Plagueis to smile discreetly in humor. "Oh no, your training is just now beginning..."

_**I am sorry that this chapter is so darn short, but it wanted to end here.**_


	5. An episode from training

_**When the Light Goes Out**_

_**Chapter 5**_

_**Thanks for reading, favoriting, and following me and my story. I immensely apologise for the extraordinarily long wait. I lost access to my account, and it was extremely hectic logging back in. I even made a new account. Thanks for being awesome enough to read this story even through all the crap you go through waiting for the updates. Go ahead and comment on how awesome an author I am to hack back into my profile just to post this update for you guys.**_

_**Please remember that writing a lot of words per chapter is difficult, a lot of my words come from my little starting messages.**_

_**Thanks again,**_

_***The Dark Lord (the one WITH a nose, thank you very much!)***_

*Two months after the earlier chapters*

Plagueis laughed, sending another boulder down the side of the cliff. His apprentice, Vader, cursed, dodging the rock, all the while running up the side of said cliff. Plagueis had ordered Vader to run all the way up the cliff as a form of training. As soon as he had begun, Plagueis started causing boulders to fall as an obstacle to Vader's training.

Anakin dodged a rock, lost his momentum, and fell down to the bottom of the cliff. Annoyed, he leapt up into the air, hurtling all the way up to the top. He landed as lightly as a cat on the edge of the precipice, only to be shoved back down by his master. "Next time, Vader, don't stay when you land. You must always keep in motion whilst in battle. Enemy troopers won't just stand and gape while you recover from a landing like that. They will shoot you!" he shouted down after his falling apprentice. "Training is complete, when you reach the top, return to the spaceship!"

Anakin jumped back up the cliff, only this time he jumped again as soon as he landed. His second jump brought him right in front of Plagueis, who had expected his apprentice to perform such a stunt. In a single motion, Plagueis brought his lightsaber up and held the glowing blade to Vader's throat. "Always be prepared, Vader. Your enemies will try to surprise you just as you tried to surprise me."

Plagueis deactivated his saber, and walked off. Vader pulled his high powered blaster pistol from his belt holster and fired a shot directly over his master's head. Plagueis, who had sensed the motion in the Force, had already moved to block the laser. He deflected the shot back toward where Vader was supposed to be. When he turned to examine the extent of his apprentice's injury, he was surprised to not see Vader. Suddenly, there was a blaster poking his back.

"Like that?" Anakin asked in a sinister voice.

"Good job, boy, but remember: I now know one of your tricks. You can never catch me off guard with it again. Was using it now more beneficial to you than waiting until the time when we will have a duel to determine if you have mastered the necessary skills to declare you a true master of the Dark Side?"

This statement threw Vader off. He hadn't thought about that.

"You always want to keep any winning tricks secret until you're using them to kill a skilled foe. If anyone knows the way you fight, everyone knows. Remember that, because it led to the downfall of many powerful Sith Lords, my own master being one of them. Every time we dueled, he would use powerful tricks that could kill the whole Jedi Council. When I challenged him just before I killed him, I knew his full arsenal of attacks. He fought me with vigor, but no matter what attack he used, he could not hit me. I then used moves that I had mastered that he did not know that I knew. Taken by surprise, he was killed five minutes into our duel.

"Now do you see the benefit of surprise?" Plagueis asked his apprentice.

"Yes, Lord Plagueis," Vader said, noting everything his master said. He was going to be the most feared swordsman in the galaxy one day, he vowed. So great that he could take on the whole Jedi Order and come out unscathed. He would be formidable, undefeatable.

·····¥·····

The pair of Sith boarded their ship and proceeded to leave the uninhabited planet, headed for Coruscant, the place where they made plans and prepared for the civil war that the Sith had been planning for millennia. As they made their way, Anakin decided that he wanted to learn about lightsabers- the feared weapons that only the Jedi (and also the Sith, Anakin reminded himself) wielded effectively.

"Lord Plagueis, I was wondering... When will I get a lightsaber of my own?" Anakin asked tentatively.

"You will get one, when I decide that you are ready. And not a moment before, as has been done since the first Sith trained his own apprentices."

"Does that time happen to be in the near future? Because a Sith who can't fight effectively isn't a Sith at all, is he?" (Please don't hate on me for the sexist phrasing, he thinks all Sith ever we're male.) he asked.

"Not if you are planning on acting like this," Plagueis smirked, "but it is in my plans for the near future."

Feeling elated, Anakin asked to be dismissed. Plagueis allowed him to return to his quarters for the duration of the flight.

Thanks again for reading, I hope this chapter was good enough to satisfy your ravenous appetites for my fanfics. Thanks specifically to g1rldraco7 for the ego boost, upon reading this.


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